Conventional baking pans that include a flat bottom and sides integrally formed with the bottom are well known. Such baking pans can be circular or rectangular in form and generally come in sizes that can be facilitatingly handled by a homemaker. Typical dimensions for circular baking pans range, for example, from about 7 to about 12 inches in diameter. A typical rectangular baking pan has dimensions of, for example, about 9 inches by about 12 inches.
Cooking utensils for the preparation of extruded food products are also known in the art. These utensils generally include a perforated section through which the food product is extruded and a device for forcing the food through the perforations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,688 describes a dough extruding apparatus having an extrusion die 20 mounted directly above a cooking utensil C. The dough is extruded through the die by a force exerted on a pressure plate 26 by manually pushing handle 12 downwardly. U.S. Pat. No. 1,461,504 describes a macaroni die which includes a plurality of plates secured together and is adapted for producing food products with irregular shapes.
It would be advantageous to provide a cooking utensil that included the provision of a food-holding area in one section, and a food-extrusion area in another section so that the user could facilitatingly extrude a portion of the food product through the extrusion area, while at the same time maintain the remaining portion of the food product in the foodl holding area in such a manner so that the food product does not cook or set up prior to extrusion. It would also be advantageous if such a utensil was sufficiently lightweight so as to be facilitatingly handled and thereby have application as a household product. It would also be advantageous if such a utensil could be readily converted to a common baking pan. It would also be advantageous if such a utensil included attachment means for mounting the utensil on a cooking vessel.